I have a question? Help required please.

[venom500]

A friend of mine got busted recently for being a few k,s over the limit and on checking his ticket found that only info on the car put down by Police Officer GetaLifeandfightrealcrime was this
Vehicle: Car Vehicle Make: Austin
But the car in question was infact a Healey, so my question is has Police Officer Getalifeandfightrealcrime screwed up? Can my friend claim that he doesn,t own or drive an Austin bearing in mind the officer in his haste to screw money out at a law abiding citizen managed to get the correct number plate details?
Also should a driver be warned when he is about to be breath tested or is it normal to have it shoved in his face and told "breath into this!"?
Also should he ask for proof of his speed (a photo) from the officer as he was not given a speed (only found out when he looked at the ticket of his ALLEDGED SPEED) just booked and nothing said.The police car was at least 1/4 mile away when spotted and the driver at that time was driving at the legal speed so if he was over at anytime the police car would need to be armed with a powerful zoom speed camara to prove he was in fact the car in question and not another that was on the road at the same time.Can he be brought to court and charged for speeding without any kind of photographic proof or is it a case of Police Officer Getalifeandfightrealcrime says he was speeding and thats is that?Would it need more than his word over my friends to prove guilt?
I hope some of you can help.Cheers.

P.S Just spent a week on the North Island...fantastic!!! Oh yes...only spotted 1 cop car in over 1000km,s and no traps or plain mufftys or speed vans, get off the plane down south and spot several within a few k,s......it sucks!

[Kiwi XTR2]

I'm certainly not an expert but here's my view

venom500 said:

. . . on checking his ticket found that only info on the car put down by Police Officer GetaLifeandfightrealcrime was this Vehicle: Car Vehicle Make: Austin But the car in question was infact a Healey, so my question is has Police Officer Getalifeandfightrealcrime screwed up? Can my friend claim that he doesn't own or drive an Austin bearing in mind the officer in his haste to screw money out at a law abiding citizen managed to get the correct number plate details?

No luck here I think. I've had my name spelt wrong and an incorrect Drivers Licence number on a speeding ticket. The BiB wouldn't withdraw the ticket. Cost me a day off work to go to Court, the ticket, and court costs.

venom500 said:

. . . Also should a driver be warned when he is about to be breath tested or is it normal to have it shoved in his face and told "breath into this!"?

That's normal and legal for the sniffer. The calibrated readings take a liitle longer to set-up and there is a little procedure speech that goes along with it. At that point there is no requirement for a 'caution' if that's what you meant.

venom500 said:

. . . Also should he ask for proof of his speed (a photo) from the officer as he was not given a speed (only found out when he looked at the ticket of his ALLEDGED SPEED) just booked and nothing said.The police car was at least 1/4 mile away when spotted and the driver at that time was driving at the legal speed so if he was over at anytime the police car would need to be armed with a powerful zoom speed camara to prove he was in fact the car in question and not another that was on the road at the same time.Can he be brought to court and charged for speeding without any kind of photographic proof or is it a case of Police Officer Getalifeandfightrealcrime says he was speeding and thats is that?Would it need more than his word over my friends to prove guilt?

Been done like that myself. He could have asked to see the readout of the radar / laser at the time.

I got stopped by a muffty with 3 's in it. It had all the radar guff on the dash but when I asked (very politely and with appropriate deference) to see the readout he ('Richard' has now stopped me a further 6 times . . . the joys of driving a STi . . . "It might have been stolen Sir") Said he had paced me with his calibrated speedo.

No documentary evidence other than the notes taken by the Officer at the time.

Result = $430.00

My lawyer's advice was to pay, unless I was prepared to pay more to try to prove a point.

venom500 said:

P.S Just spent a week on the North Island...fantastic!!! Oh yes...only spotted 1 cop car in over 1000km,s and no traps or plain mufftys or speed vans . . .

You were VERY lucky ! ! !

>> Edited by Kiwi XTR2 on Sunday 20th November 14:41

[venom500]

Thanks for that....I think?

[Roger A]

I was a courier driver some time ago, while a student, and got done by a bozo who wrote down wrong date and wrong street -so I showed up to court thinking I'd get off on a technicality.When I explained that I was sitting an exam on that date and certainly not driving too quickly in a nonexistant street, Pc Bozo just asked judge if he could change details. Judge said yes.